Fred Korematsu
Encyclopedia
was one of the many Japanese-American
citizens living on the West Coast
during World War II
. Shortly after the Imperial Japanese Navy
attacked Pearl Harbor
, President
Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066
, authorizing the Secretary of War
and his military commanders to require all Japanese Americans be removed from designated "military areas" and placed in internment camps
. When such orders were issued for the West Coast
, Korematsu instead became a fugitive. The legality of the internment order was upheld by the United States Supreme Court in Korematsu v. United States
, but Korematsu's conviction was overturned decades later after the disclosure of new evidence, challenging the necessity of the Japanese internment, which had been withheld from the courts by the U.S. government during the war.
To commemorate his journey as a civil rights
activist, the "Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution" was observed for first time on January 30, 2011, by the state of California
, and first such commemoration for an Asian American
in the US.
in 1919, the third of four sons to Japanese parents who immigrated to the United States in 1905. Fred resided continuously in Oakland from his birth until the time of his arrest. He attended public schools, participated in the Castlemont High School tennis and swim teams, and worked in his family's flower nursery
in nearby San Leandro, California
. He encountered racism in high school when an army recruiting officer was handing out recruiting flyers to Korematsu’s non-Japanese friends. The officer told Korematsu, “We have orders not to accept you.” Even his girlfriend, Ida Boitano’s Italian parents felt that people of Japanese descent were inferior and unfit to mix with white people.
when called for military duty under the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940
, due to stomach ulcers
. Instead, he trained to become a welder in order to contribute his services to the defense effort. First, he worked as a welder at a shipyard. He went in one day to find his timecard missing; his coworkers hastily explained to him that he was Japanese so therefore he was not allowed to work there. He then found a new job, but was fired after one week when his supervisor, who had just returned from an extended vacation, found that there was a “Jap” working at his business. Because of his Japanese descent, Korematsu lost all employment completely following the attack on Pearl Harbor
.
On March 27, 1942, General John L. DeWitt
, commander of the Western Defense Area, prohibited Japanese Americans from leaving the limits of Military Area No. 1, in preparation for their eventual evacuation to detention camps. Korematsu underwent plastic surgery
on his eyelids in the unsuccessful hope of passing as a Caucasian
, changed his name to Clyde Sarah, and claimed to be of Spanish
and Hawaiian
heritage.
When on May 3, 1942, General DeWitt ordered Japanese Americans to report on May 9 to Assembly Centers as a prelude to being removed to the camps, Korematsu refused and went into hiding in the Oakland area. He was arrested on a street corner in San Leandro on May 30, 1942, after being recognized as a "Jap". He was held at a jail in San Francisco
, Shortly after Korematsu's arrest, Ernest Besig, the director of the American Civil Liberties Union
in northern California asked him if he would be willing to use his case to test the legality of the Japanese American internment. Korematsu agreed, and was assigned civil rights attorney Wayne M. Collins
. The American Civil Liberties Union in fact argued for Ernest Besig not to fight Korematsu’s case, since many high-ranking members of the ACLU were close to Franklin Roosevelt, and the ACLU didn’t want to be perceived badly in time of war. Besig decided to take Korematsu's case in spite of this. Korematsu felt that “people should have a fair trial and a chance to defend their loyalty at court in a democratic way, because in this situation, people were placed in imprisonment without any fair trial.” On June 12, 1942 Korematsu had his trial date and was given $5,000 bail ($ today). After Fred's arraignment June 18, 1942, Besig posted bail and he and Fred tried to leave. When met by Military Police, Besig told Fred to go with them. The Military Police took Fred to the Presidio. Korematsu was tried and convicted in federal court
on September 8, 1942, for a violation of Public Law No. 503, which criminalized the violations of military orders issued under the authority of Executive Order 9066
, and was placed on five years' probation
. He was taken from the courtroom and returned to the Tanforan Assembly Center, and thereafter he and his family were placed in the Central Utah War Relocation Center situated at Topaz, Utah. As an unskilled laborer, he was eligible to receive only $12 per month ($ today) for working eight hours per day at the camp. He was placed in a horse stall with one light bulb, and he later remarked that “jail was better than this.”
While hailed by some, others criticized Korematsu's actions. Many Japanese residents living on the West Coast cooperated with the government internment order, hoping to prove their loyalty as Americans, including members of the Japanese American Citizens League
. Korematsu was thus disdained for his opposition to government order and was seen as a threat in the eyes of other Japanese and Japanese Americans. When Korematsu’s family was moved to the internment camp in Topaz, Utah, he would later describe feeling isolated because people recognized him and felt that if they talked to him, they would also be seen as troublemakers.
Korematsu then appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals
. They granted review on March 27, 1943, but upheld the original verdict on January 7, 1944. He appealed again and brought his case to the United States Supreme Court
, which granted review on March 27, 1944. On December 18, 1944, in a 6-3 decision, authored by Justice Black
, the Court held that compulsory exclusion, though constitutionally suspect, is justified during circumstances of "emergency and peril". (See Korematsu v. United States
for more information.)
However, the Court also decided Ex parte Endo
in December 1944, granting Mitsuye Endo her liberty from the camps because the Department of Justice
and War Relocation Authority
conceded that Endo was a "loyal and law-abiding citizen" and that no authority existed for detaining loyal citizens longer than necessary to separate the loyal from the disloyal. Endo's case did not address the question of whether the initial removal itself was constitutional, as did Korematsu's case.
where he continued to fight racism. He still knew there were inequalities amongst the Japanese, as he experienced these inequalities in his everyday life. He found work repairing water tanks in Salt Lake City, but after three months on the job, he discovered he was being paid half of what his white coworkers were being paid. He told his boss that this was unfair and asked to be paid the same amount, but his boss only threatened to call the police and try to get Korematsu arrested for being Japanese, so he left his job. After this incident, Korematsu lost hope, remaining quiet for over thirty years. His own daughter did not find out about what her father did until she was in high school. Peter Irons said that Korematsu “felt responsible for the internment in a sort of backhanded way, because his case had been lost in the Supreme Court.” He moved to Detroit, Michigan
, where his younger brother lived, and here he worked as a draftsman
until 1949. He met a Caucasian
woman and married her circa 1946–1947 in Detroit, where interracial marriage
was legal at the time. He soon visited the Oakland area again with her, and after his bride fell ill, they resettled there. His daughter was born in 1950, and a son in 1954.
In 1980, President Jimmy Carter
appointed a special commission to investigate the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. The commission concluded that the decisions to remove those of Japanese ancestry to prison camps occurred because of "race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership". In 1988, Congress apologized and granted personal compensation of $20,000 to each surviving prisoner.
In the early 1980s, while researching a book on internment cases, lawyer and University of California, San Diego
professor Peter Irons came across evidence that Charles Fahy, the Solicitor General of the United States
who argued Korematsu v. United States before the Supreme Court, had deliberately suppressed reports from the FBI and military intelligence which concluded that Japanese-American citizens posed no security risk. These documents revealed that the military had lied to the Supreme Court, and that government lawyers had willingly made false arguments. Irons concluded that the Supreme Court’s decision was invalid since it was based on unsubstantiated facts, distortions, and misrepresentations. Along with a team of lawyers headed by Dale Minami
, Irons petitioned for writs of error coram nobis
with the federal courts, seeking to overturn Korematsu's conviction.
On November 10, 1983, Judge Marilyn Hall Patel
of U.S. District Court in San Francisco formally vacated the conviction. Korematsu stood in front of US District Judge Marilyn Patel and said, “I would like to see the government admit that they were wrong and do something about it so this will never happen again to any American citizen of any race, creed, or color.” He also said, “If anyone should do any pardoning, I should be the one pardoning the government for what they did to the Japanese-American people.” Peter Irons described Korematsu’s ending statement during the case as the most powerful statement he’d ever heard from anyone. He related the statement as being as empowering as Martin Luther King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech. Judge Patel’s ruling cleared Korematsu’s name, but did not overturn the Supreme Court’s decision.
President Bill Clinton
awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom
, the highest civilian honor in the United States, to Korematsu in 1998, saying, "In the long history of our country's constant search for justice, some names of ordinary citizens stand for millions of souls. Plessy
, Brown
, Parks
... to that distinguished list, today we add the name of Fred Korematsu." That year Korematsu served as the Grand Marshal
of San Francisco's annual Cherry Blossom Festival parade.
A member and Elder of First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, Korematsu was twice President of San Leandro Lions Club
, and for 15 years a volunteer with Boy Scouts of America
, San Francisco Bay Council.
Korematsu spoke out after September 11, 2001 and how the United States government must not let the same thing happen to people of Middle-Eastern descent as what happened to Japanese Americans. When prisoners were detained at Guantanamo Bay for too long of a period, in Korematsu’s opinion, he filed two amicus curiae brief
s with the Supreme Court and warned them not to repeat the mistakes of the Japanese internment.
He wrote his first amicus brief in October 2003 for two cases appealed before the Supreme Court of the United States, Shafiq Rasul, v. George W. Bush and Khaled A.F. Al Odah v. United States of America. Attorneys Arturo J. Gonzalez and Sylvia M. Sokol of Morrison & Foerster LLP and Jon B. Streeter and Eumi K. Lee of Keker & Van Nest LLP worked on the amicus curiae brief. In the brief, Korematsu warned the Supreme Court that the restriction of civil liberties can never be justified, and had never been justified in the history of the United States. Furthermore, Korematsu provided examples of specific cases in American history in which the government exceeded constitutional authority, such as the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 and the Japanese Internment of World War II. Korematsu thus reacted critically of the United States government who imprisoned detainees in Guantanamo Bay by restricting their civil liberties albeit in a time of, according to the respondent, “military necessity”.
Similarly, in his second amicus brief, written April 2004 with the Bar Association of San Francisco, the Asian Law Caucus, the Asian American Bar Association of the Greater Bay Area, Asian Pacific Islander Legal Outreach, and the Japanese American Citizens League, Korematsu responded to Donald Rumsfeld v. Jose Padilla. The following attorneys worked on the amicus brief: Geoffrey R. Stone, Dale Minami of Minami, Lew, and Tamaki LLP, Eric K. Yamamoto, Stephen J. Schulhofer of the Brennan Center for Justice, and Evan R. Chesler of Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP. The Amici Curiae’s statement of interest emphasized the similarity of the unlawful detainment between Fred Korematsu during World War II and that of Jose Padilla following the events of 9/11, and warned the American government of repeating their mistakes of the past. He believed that “full vindication for the Japanese-Americans will arrive only when we learn that, even in times of crisis; we must guard against prejudice and keep uppermost our commitment to law and justice.”
From 2001 until his death, Korematsu served on the Constitution Project
's bipartisan Liberty and Security Committee.http://www.constitutionproject.org/libertyandsecurity/members.cfm?categoryId=3 Discussing racial profiling in 2004, he warned, "No one should ever be locked away simply because they share the same race, ethnicity, or religion as a spy or terrorist. If that principle was not learned from the internment of Japanese Americans, then these are very dangerous times for our democracy."
Fred Korematsu died of respiratory failure at his daughter's home in Marin County, California
on March 30, 2005. One of the last things Korematsu said was, “I'll never forget my government treating me like this. And I really hope that this will never happen to anybody else because of the way they look, if they look like the enemy of our country”. He also urged others to, “protest, but not with violence, and don’t be afraid to speak up. One person can make a difference, even if it takes forty years.” Korematsu was buried at the Mountain View Cemetery.
On May 24, 2011, U.S. Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal
delivered the keynote speech at the Department of Justice's Great Hall marking Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Developing comments he had posted officially on May 20, Katyal issued the Justice Department's first public confession of its 1942 ethics lapse. He cited the Korematsu case and the similar precedent of Gordon Hirabayashi
as blots on the reputation of the Office of the Solicitor General, which aspires to deserve "special credence" when pleading cases before the Supreme Court, and thus "an important reminder" of the need for absolute candor in arguing the United States government's position on every case.
Japanese American
are American people of Japanese heritage. Japanese Americans have historically been among the three largest Asian American communities, but in recent decades have become the sixth largest group at roughly 1,204,205, including those of mixed-race or mixed-ethnicity...
citizens living on the West Coast
West Coast of the United States
West Coast or Pacific Coast are terms for the westernmost coastal states of the United States. The term most often refers to the states of California, Oregon, and Washington. Although not part of the contiguous United States, Alaska and Hawaii do border the Pacific Ocean but can't be included in...
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Shortly after the Imperial Japanese Navy
Imperial Japanese Navy
The Imperial Japanese Navy was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1869 until 1947, when it was dissolved following Japan's constitutional renunciation of the use of force as a means of settling international disputes...
attacked Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor, known to Hawaiians as Puuloa, is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet...
, President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066
Executive Order 9066
United States Executive Order 9066 was a United States presidential executive order signed and issued during World War II by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942 authorizing the Secretary of War to prescribe certain areas as military zones...
, authorizing the Secretary of War
United States Secretary of War
The Secretary of War was a member of the United States President's Cabinet, beginning with George Washington's administration. A similar position, called either "Secretary at War" or "Secretary of War," was appointed to serve the Congress of the Confederation under the Articles of Confederation...
and his military commanders to require all Japanese Americans be removed from designated "military areas" and placed in internment camps
Japanese American internment
Japanese-American internment was the relocation and internment by the United States government in 1942 of approximately 110,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese who lived along the Pacific coast of the United States to camps called "War Relocation Camps," in the wake of Imperial Japan's attack on...
. When such orders were issued for the West Coast
West Coast of the United States
West Coast or Pacific Coast are terms for the westernmost coastal states of the United States. The term most often refers to the states of California, Oregon, and Washington. Although not part of the contiguous United States, Alaska and Hawaii do border the Pacific Ocean but can't be included in...
, Korematsu instead became a fugitive. The legality of the internment order was upheld by the United States Supreme Court in Korematsu v. United States
Korematsu v. United States
Korematsu v. United States, 323 U.S. 214 , was a landmark United States Supreme Court case concerning the constitutionality of Executive Order 9066, which ordered Japanese Americans into internment camps during World War II....
, but Korematsu's conviction was overturned decades later after the disclosure of new evidence, challenging the necessity of the Japanese internment, which had been withheld from the courts by the U.S. government during the war.
To commemorate his journey as a civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
activist, the "Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution" was observed for first time on January 30, 2011, by the state of California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, and first such commemoration for an Asian American
Asian American
Asian Americans are Americans of Asian descent. The U.S. Census Bureau definition of Asians as "Asian” refers to a person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent, including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan,...
in the US.
Early life
Fred Korematsu was born in Oakland, CaliforniaOakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
in 1919, the third of four sons to Japanese parents who immigrated to the United States in 1905. Fred resided continuously in Oakland from his birth until the time of his arrest. He attended public schools, participated in the Castlemont High School tennis and swim teams, and worked in his family's flower nursery
Nursery (horticulture)
A nursery is a place where plants are propagated and grown to usable size. They include retail nurseries which sell to the general public, wholesale nurseries which sell only to businesses such as other nurseries and to commercial gardeners, and private nurseries which supply the needs of...
in nearby San Leandro, California
San Leandro, California
San Leandro is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. It is considered a suburb of Oakland and San Francisco. The population was 84,950 as of 2010 census. The climate of the city is mild throughout the year.-Geography and water resources:...
. He encountered racism in high school when an army recruiting officer was handing out recruiting flyers to Korematsu’s non-Japanese friends. The officer told Korematsu, “We have orders not to accept you.” Even his girlfriend, Ida Boitano’s Italian parents felt that people of Japanese descent were inferior and unfit to mix with white people.
World War II
Korematsu was rejected by the U.S. NavyUnited States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
when called for military duty under the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940
Selective Training and Service Act of 1940
The Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, also known as the Burke-Wadsworth Act, was passed by the Congress of the United States on September 17, 1940, becoming the first peacetime conscription in United States history when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed it into law two days later...
, due to stomach ulcers
Peptic ulcer
A peptic ulcer, also known as PUD or peptic ulcer disease, is the most common ulcer of an area of the gastrointestinal tract that is usually acidic and thus extremely painful. It is defined as mucosal erosions equal to or greater than 0.5 cm...
. Instead, he trained to become a welder in order to contribute his services to the defense effort. First, he worked as a welder at a shipyard. He went in one day to find his timecard missing; his coworkers hastily explained to him that he was Japanese so therefore he was not allowed to work there. He then found a new job, but was fired after one week when his supervisor, who had just returned from an extended vacation, found that there was a “Jap” working at his business. Because of his Japanese descent, Korematsu lost all employment completely following the attack on Pearl Harbor
Attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...
.
On March 27, 1942, General John L. DeWitt
John L. DeWitt
John Lesesne DeWitt was a general in the United States Army, best known for his vocal support of the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II....
, commander of the Western Defense Area, prohibited Japanese Americans from leaving the limits of Military Area No. 1, in preparation for their eventual evacuation to detention camps. Korematsu underwent plastic surgery
Plastic surgery
Plastic surgery is a medical specialty concerned with the correction or restoration of form and function. Though cosmetic or aesthetic surgery is the best-known kind of plastic surgery, most plastic surgery is not cosmetic: plastic surgery includes many types of reconstructive surgery, hand...
on his eyelids in the unsuccessful hope of passing as a Caucasian
Caucasian race
The term Caucasian race has been used to denote the general physical type of some or all of the populations of Europe, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, Western Asia , Central Asia and South Asia...
, changed his name to Clyde Sarah, and claimed to be of Spanish
Spanish American
A Spanish American is a citizen or resident of the United States whose ancestors originate from the southwestern European nation of Spain. Spanish Americans are the earliest European American group, with a continuous presence since 1565.-Immigration waves:...
and Hawaiian
Native Hawaiians
Native Hawaiians refers to the indigenous Polynesian people of the Hawaiian Islands or their descendants. Native Hawaiians trace their ancestry back to the original Polynesian settlers of Hawaii.According to the U.S...
heritage.
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
, Shortly after Korematsu's arrest, Ernest Besig, the director of the American Civil Liberties Union
American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union is a U.S. non-profit organization whose stated mission is "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States." It works through litigation, legislation, and...
in northern California asked him if he would be willing to use his case to test the legality of the Japanese American internment. Korematsu agreed, and was assigned civil rights attorney Wayne M. Collins
Wayne M. Collins
Wayne M. Collins was a civil rights attorney who worked on cases related to the Japanese American evacuation and internment.-Biography:Collins was born in Sacramento, California and was raised and educated in San Francisco....
. The American Civil Liberties Union in fact argued for Ernest Besig not to fight Korematsu’s case, since many high-ranking members of the ACLU were close to Franklin Roosevelt, and the ACLU didn’t want to be perceived badly in time of war. Besig decided to take Korematsu's case in spite of this. Korematsu felt that “people should have a fair trial and a chance to defend their loyalty at court in a democratic way, because in this situation, people were placed in imprisonment without any fair trial.” On June 12, 1942 Korematsu had his trial date and was given $5,000 bail ($ today). After Fred's arraignment June 18, 1942, Besig posted bail and he and Fred tried to leave. When met by Military Police, Besig told Fred to go with them. The Military Police took Fred to the Presidio. Korematsu was tried and convicted in federal court
United States District Court for the Northern District of California
The United States District Court for the Northern District of California is the federal United States district court whose jurisdiction comprises following counties of California: Alameda, Contra Costa, Del Norte, Humboldt, Lake, Marin, Mendocino, Monterey, Napa, San Benito, San Francisco, San...
on September 8, 1942, for a violation of Public Law No. 503, which criminalized the violations of military orders issued under the authority of Executive Order 9066
Executive Order 9066
United States Executive Order 9066 was a United States presidential executive order signed and issued during World War II by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942 authorizing the Secretary of War to prescribe certain areas as military zones...
, and was placed on five years' probation
Probation
Probation literally means testing of behaviour or abilities. In a legal sense, an offender on probation is ordered to follow certain conditions set forth by the court, often under the supervision of a probation officer...
. He was taken from the courtroom and returned to the Tanforan Assembly Center, and thereafter he and his family were placed in the Central Utah War Relocation Center situated at Topaz, Utah. As an unskilled laborer, he was eligible to receive only $12 per month ($ today) for working eight hours per day at the camp. He was placed in a horse stall with one light bulb, and he later remarked that “jail was better than this.”
While hailed by some, others criticized Korematsu's actions. Many Japanese residents living on the West Coast cooperated with the government internment order, hoping to prove their loyalty as Americans, including members of the Japanese American Citizens League
Japanese American Citizens League
The was formed in 1929 to protect the rights of Japanese Americans from the state and federal governments. It fought for civil rights for Japanese Americans, assisted those in internment camps during World War II, and led a successful campaign for redress for internment from the U.S...
. Korematsu was thus disdained for his opposition to government order and was seen as a threat in the eyes of other Japanese and Japanese Americans. When Korematsu’s family was moved to the internment camp in Topaz, Utah, he would later describe feeling isolated because people recognized him and felt that if they talked to him, they would also be seen as troublemakers.
Korematsu then appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is a U.S. federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts:* District of Alaska* District of Arizona...
. They granted review on March 27, 1943, but upheld the original verdict on January 7, 1944. He appealed again and brought his case to the United States Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
, which granted review on March 27, 1944. On December 18, 1944, in a 6-3 decision, authored by Justice Black
Hugo Black
Hugo Lafayette Black was an American politician and jurist. A member of the Democratic Party, Black represented Alabama in the United States Senate from 1927 to 1937, and served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1937 to 1971. Black was nominated to the Supreme...
, the Court held that compulsory exclusion, though constitutionally suspect, is justified during circumstances of "emergency and peril". (See Korematsu v. United States
Korematsu v. United States
Korematsu v. United States, 323 U.S. 214 , was a landmark United States Supreme Court case concerning the constitutionality of Executive Order 9066, which ordered Japanese Americans into internment camps during World War II....
for more information.)
However, the Court also decided Ex parte Endo
Ex parte Endo
Ex parte Endo, or Ex parte Mitsuye Endo, 323 U.S. 283 , was a United States Supreme Court decision, handed down on December 18, 1944, the same day as their decision in Korematsu v. United States...
in December 1944, granting Mitsuye Endo her liberty from the camps because the Department of Justice
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
and War Relocation Authority
War Relocation Authority
The War Relocation Authority was a United States government agency established to handle internment of Japanese-, German-, and Italian-Americans during World War II...
conceded that Endo was a "loyal and law-abiding citizen" and that no authority existed for detaining loyal citizens longer than necessary to separate the loyal from the disloyal. Endo's case did not address the question of whether the initial removal itself was constitutional, as did Korematsu's case.
Later life and compensation
After release from camp, Korematsu had to move east, as the law would not allow a move back westward. He moved to Salt Lake City, UtahSalt Lake City, Utah
Salt Lake City is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. The name of the city is often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC. With a population of 186,440 as of the 2010 Census, the city lies in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, which has a total population of 1,124,197...
where he continued to fight racism. He still knew there were inequalities amongst the Japanese, as he experienced these inequalities in his everyday life. He found work repairing water tanks in Salt Lake City, but after three months on the job, he discovered he was being paid half of what his white coworkers were being paid. He told his boss that this was unfair and asked to be paid the same amount, but his boss only threatened to call the police and try to get Korematsu arrested for being Japanese, so he left his job. After this incident, Korematsu lost hope, remaining quiet for over thirty years. His own daughter did not find out about what her father did until she was in high school. Peter Irons said that Korematsu “felt responsible for the internment in a sort of backhanded way, because his case had been lost in the Supreme Court.” He moved to Detroit, Michigan
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...
, where his younger brother lived, and here he worked as a draftsman
Technical drawing
Technical drawing, also known as drafting or draughting, is the act and discipline of composing plans that visually communicate how something functions or has to be constructed.Drafting is the language of industry....
until 1949. He met a Caucasian
White people
White people is a term which usually refers to human beings characterized, at least in part, by the light pigmentation of their skin...
woman and married her circa 1946–1947 in Detroit, where interracial marriage
Interracial marriage
Interracial marriage occurs when two people of differing racial groups marry. This is a form of exogamy and can be seen in the broader context of miscegenation .-Legality of interracial marriage:In the Western world certain jurisdictions have had regulations...
was legal at the time. He soon visited the Oakland area again with her, and after his bride fell ill, they resettled there. His daughter was born in 1950, and a son in 1954.
In 1980, President Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
appointed a special commission to investigate the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. The commission concluded that the decisions to remove those of Japanese ancestry to prison camps occurred because of "race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership". In 1988, Congress apologized and granted personal compensation of $20,000 to each surviving prisoner.
In the early 1980s, while researching a book on internment cases, lawyer and University of California, San Diego
University of California, San Diego
The University of California, San Diego, commonly known as UCSD or UC San Diego, is a public research university located in the La Jolla neighborhood of San Diego, California, United States...
professor Peter Irons came across evidence that Charles Fahy, the Solicitor General of the United States
United States Solicitor General
The United States Solicitor General is the person appointed to represent the federal government of the United States before the Supreme Court of the United States. The current Solicitor General, Donald B. Verrilli, Jr. was confirmed by the United States Senate on June 6, 2011 and sworn in on June...
who argued Korematsu v. United States before the Supreme Court, had deliberately suppressed reports from the FBI and military intelligence which concluded that Japanese-American citizens posed no security risk. These documents revealed that the military had lied to the Supreme Court, and that government lawyers had willingly made false arguments. Irons concluded that the Supreme Court’s decision was invalid since it was based on unsubstantiated facts, distortions, and misrepresentations. Along with a team of lawyers headed by Dale Minami
Dale Minami
Dale Minami is a San Francisco-based lawyer best known for heading the legal team that overturned the wrongful conviction of Fred Korematsu, whose defiance of the World War II Japanese American internment order lead to Korematsu v...
, Irons petitioned for writs of error coram nobis
Coram nobis
Coram nobis or coram vobis also known as error coram nobis or error coram vobis is a legal writ issued by a court to correct a previous error "of...
with the federal courts, seeking to overturn Korematsu's conviction.
On November 10, 1983, Judge Marilyn Hall Patel
Marilyn Hall Patel
Marilyn Hall Patel is an active judge presiding in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. She was Chief District Judge of that jurisdiction from 1997 until 2004, and heard several notable cases during that time....
of U.S. District Court in San Francisco formally vacated the conviction. Korematsu stood in front of US District Judge Marilyn Patel and said, “I would like to see the government admit that they were wrong and do something about it so this will never happen again to any American citizen of any race, creed, or color.” He also said, “If anyone should do any pardoning, I should be the one pardoning the government for what they did to the Japanese-American people.” Peter Irons described Korematsu’s ending statement during the case as the most powerful statement he’d ever heard from anyone. He related the statement as being as empowering as Martin Luther King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech. Judge Patel’s ruling cleared Korematsu’s name, but did not overturn the Supreme Court’s decision.
President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom
Presidential Medal of Freedom
The Presidential Medal of Freedom is an award bestowed by the President of the United States and is—along with thecomparable Congressional Gold Medal bestowed by an act of U.S. Congress—the highest civilian award in the United States...
, the highest civilian honor in the United States, to Korematsu in 1998, saying, "In the long history of our country's constant search for justice, some names of ordinary citizens stand for millions of souls. Plessy
Homer Plessy
Homer Plessy was the American plaintiff in the United States Supreme Court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson. Arrested, tried and convicted of a violation of one of Louisiana's racial segregation laws, he appealed through Louisiana state courts to the U.S. Supreme Court, and lost...
, Brown
Oliver Brown (civil rights)
Oliver L. Brown was the plaintiff in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education of 1954. The Court overturned the doctrine of separate but equal for public schools....
, Parks
Rosa Parks
Rosa Louise McCauley Parks was an African-American civil rights activist, whom the U.S. Congress called "the first lady of civil rights", and "the mother of the freedom movement"....
... to that distinguished list, today we add the name of Fred Korematsu." That year Korematsu served as the Grand Marshal
Grand Marshal
Grand Marshal is a ceremonial, military, or political office of very high rank. The term has its origins with the word "Marshal" with the first usage of the term "Grand Marshal" as a ceremonial title for certain religious orders...
of San Francisco's annual Cherry Blossom Festival parade.
A member and Elder of First Presbyterian Church of Oakland, Korematsu was twice President of San Leandro Lions Club
Lions Clubs International
Lions Clubs International is a secular service organization with over 44,500 clubs and more than 1,368,683 members in 191 countries around the world founded by Melvin Jones Headquartered in Oak Brook, Illinois, United States, the organization aims to meet the needs of communities on a local and...
, and for 15 years a volunteer with Boy Scouts of America
Boy Scouts of America
The Boy Scouts of America is one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with over 4.5 million youth members in its age-related divisions...
, San Francisco Bay Council.
Korematsu spoke out after September 11, 2001 and how the United States government must not let the same thing happen to people of Middle-Eastern descent as what happened to Japanese Americans. When prisoners were detained at Guantanamo Bay for too long of a period, in Korematsu’s opinion, he filed two amicus curiae brief
Amicus curiae
An amicus curiae is someone, not a party to a case, who volunteers to offer information to assist a court in deciding a matter before it...
s with the Supreme Court and warned them not to repeat the mistakes of the Japanese internment.
He wrote his first amicus brief in October 2003 for two cases appealed before the Supreme Court of the United States, Shafiq Rasul, v. George W. Bush and Khaled A.F. Al Odah v. United States of America. Attorneys Arturo J. Gonzalez and Sylvia M. Sokol of Morrison & Foerster LLP and Jon B. Streeter and Eumi K. Lee of Keker & Van Nest LLP worked on the amicus curiae brief. In the brief, Korematsu warned the Supreme Court that the restriction of civil liberties can never be justified, and had never been justified in the history of the United States. Furthermore, Korematsu provided examples of specific cases in American history in which the government exceeded constitutional authority, such as the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 and the Japanese Internment of World War II. Korematsu thus reacted critically of the United States government who imprisoned detainees in Guantanamo Bay by restricting their civil liberties albeit in a time of, according to the respondent, “military necessity”.
Similarly, in his second amicus brief, written April 2004 with the Bar Association of San Francisco, the Asian Law Caucus, the Asian American Bar Association of the Greater Bay Area, Asian Pacific Islander Legal Outreach, and the Japanese American Citizens League, Korematsu responded to Donald Rumsfeld v. Jose Padilla. The following attorneys worked on the amicus brief: Geoffrey R. Stone, Dale Minami of Minami, Lew, and Tamaki LLP, Eric K. Yamamoto, Stephen J. Schulhofer of the Brennan Center for Justice, and Evan R. Chesler of Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP. The Amici Curiae’s statement of interest emphasized the similarity of the unlawful detainment between Fred Korematsu during World War II and that of Jose Padilla following the events of 9/11, and warned the American government of repeating their mistakes of the past. He believed that “full vindication for the Japanese-Americans will arrive only when we learn that, even in times of crisis; we must guard against prejudice and keep uppermost our commitment to law and justice.”
From 2001 until his death, Korematsu served on the Constitution Project
Constitution Project
The Constitution Project is an non-profit think tank in the United States that builds bipartisan consensus on significant constitutional and legal questions. Founded and led by Virginia Sloan, the Constitution Project’s work is divided between two programs: the Rule of Law Program and the Criminal...
's bipartisan Liberty and Security Committee.http://www.constitutionproject.org/libertyandsecurity/members.cfm?categoryId=3 Discussing racial profiling in 2004, he warned, "No one should ever be locked away simply because they share the same race, ethnicity, or religion as a spy or terrorist. If that principle was not learned from the internment of Japanese Americans, then these are very dangerous times for our democracy."
Fred Korematsu died of respiratory failure at his daughter's home in Marin County, California
Marin County, California
Marin County is a county located in the North San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco. As of 2010, the population was 252,409. The county seat is San Rafael and the largest employer is the county government. Marin County is well...
on March 30, 2005. One of the last things Korematsu said was, “I'll never forget my government treating me like this. And I really hope that this will never happen to anybody else because of the way they look, if they look like the enemy of our country”. He also urged others to, “protest, but not with violence, and don’t be afraid to speak up. One person can make a difference, even if it takes forty years.” Korematsu was buried at the Mountain View Cemetery.
On May 24, 2011, U.S. Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal
Neal Katyal
Neal Kumar Katyal is an American lawyer and chaired professor of law. He served as Acting Solicitor General of the United States from May 2010 until June 2011. As Acting Solicitor General, Katyal succeeded Elena Kagan, who was President Barack Obama's choice to replace the retiring Associate...
delivered the keynote speech at the Department of Justice's Great Hall marking Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Developing comments he had posted officially on May 20, Katyal issued the Justice Department's first public confession of its 1942 ethics lapse. He cited the Korematsu case and the similar precedent of Gordon Hirabayashi
Gordon Hirabayashi
Gordon Kiyoshi Hirabayashi is an American sociologist , best known for his principled resistance to the Japanese American internment during World War II, and the court case which bears his name, Hirabayashi v. United States.-Biography:Hirabayashi was born in Seattle to a Christian family who were...
as blots on the reputation of the Office of the Solicitor General, which aspires to deserve "special credence" when pleading cases before the Supreme Court, and thus "an important reminder" of the need for absolute candor in arguing the United States government's position on every case.
Legacy
- Fred T. Korematsu Elementary School at Mace Ranch in Davis, CaliforniaDavis, CaliforniaDavis is a city in Yolo County, California, United States. It is part of the Sacramento–Arden-Arcade–Roseville Metropolitan Statistical Area...
is named for Korematsu.
- The freshman campus of San Leandro High SchoolSan Leandro High SchoolSan Leandro High School is an American four-year public high school in San Leandro, California. The school is a member of the San Leandro Unified School District...
is named Fred T. Korematsu Campus in respect to Korematsu.
- The Discovery Academy elementary school in Oakland, California, was renamed Fred T. Korematsu Discovery Academy.
- In 1988, a street in San Jose, California was renamed Korematsu Court.
- There is a Korematsu bronze relief in front of the San Jose Federal Building.
- Awards in his name include the American Muslim Voices Korematsu Civil Rights Award.
- On September 23, 2010, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California signed into law a bill that designates January 30 of each year as the Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution., a first for an Asian AmericanAsian AmericanAsian Americans are Americans of Asian descent. The U.S. Census Bureau definition of Asians as "Asian” refers to a person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent, including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan,...
in the US. It was observed for the first time on January 30, 2011. The main celebration of the CaliforniaCaliforniaCalifornia is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
state was held at the Wheeler Auditorium on the UC Berkeley campus, sponsored by the Korematsu Institute, a non-profit program co-founded by Korematsu's daughter and the Asian Law Caucus, a San Francisco-based civil rights organization. The event included presentations by the Rev. Jesse JacksonJesse JacksonJesse Louis Jackson, Sr. is an African-American civil rights activist and Baptist minister. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988 and served as shadow senator for the District of Columbia from 1991 to 1997. He was the founder of both entities that merged to...
and a screening of the Emmy Award-winning film "Of Civil Wrongs and Rights: The Fred Korematsu Story."
See also
- Gordon HirabayashiGordon HirabayashiGordon Kiyoshi Hirabayashi is an American sociologist , best known for his principled resistance to the Japanese American internment during World War II, and the court case which bears his name, Hirabayashi v. United States.-Biography:Hirabayashi was born in Seattle to a Christian family who were...
- Minoru YasuiMinoru YasuiMinoru "Min" Yasui was a Japanese American lawyer from Oregon. Born in Hood River, Oregon, he earned both an undergraduate degree and his law degree at the University of Oregon. He was one of the few Japanese Americans after the bombing of Pearl Harbor who fought laws that directly targeted...
- Japanese American internmentJapanese American internmentJapanese-American internment was the relocation and internment by the United States government in 1942 of approximately 110,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese who lived along the Pacific coast of the United States to camps called "War Relocation Camps," in the wake of Imperial Japan's attack on...